Sports Minister Kofi Adams has stated that although he will condemn the violence that characterized inter-college sports competitions in Ghana, it is not alien to Ghana’s sporting ecosystem.
It will be recalled that a Koforidua Sec Tech student was maimed during the inter-schools competition in the Eastern Region; there were clashes in the Ashanti Region, and the same violence was recorded in the Central Region.
The issue generated conversations both on social and traditional media with calls on the Ghana Education Service to ensure that culprits are brought to book.
But speaking in an interview with the constituent seat, Sports Minister Kofi Adams indicated that “I totally condemn it, but truthfully speaking, it is not alien to our sporting ecosystem. What we need to do is to beef up security systems.
We need to develop systems that will discourage that from happening. I’m impressed with the swift response of the Director General of the Ghana Education Service and the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Sports, and the security sector”.
On calls for schools’ sporting competitions to be banned, the minister said he will not back such calls because the sporting activities are part of the pathway development for various sporting systems and sporting events that Ghana has, so it can’t be banned, but rather what can be done is to build the security systems.
“If you ban it, you are denying that young athlete with the talent and opportunity to develop. What we can do is to say we will not stop the sports but rather we will not give opportunity to supporters or when you go, you’ll go under very strict rules and conditions and there will be proper presence of security to manage the crowd or a teacher will be in charge of a number of students to ensure that they adhere to laid down rules and regulations,” he said in an interview with constituents seat.
